I am brand new. Little Capital. And still working full time. How can I drive sales to small retailers in my market and do it affordably? My company has no money. It is 100% organic. And has made $500 in its first 2 weeks of launch. Mostly from Instagram. I have picked up one small retailer in my area. I work full time so I cannot call Telecom/Datacom and Electrical Retailers while I am working. And most of them want to be called. I have been emailing them. This has proven not effective. This is my first "successful" business and product that is making decent money out of the gate. The product is good. It solves a problem worth solving in my customer's' eyes. I just think the best way to move forward financially and strategically. Is to possibly hire a commission based sales person. Since I have no capital to pay them. I don't even have the money for a Hire Ad. Any help, advice would be amazing. Thank You in advance.
Congrats on finding early success in your new venture. I've had 10+ years of experience building my own and helping others build their business development processes (including in the retail space) - I definitely agree that developing/improving your business sales protocol is critical if you want to continue to meet and beat these early results.
For example: If or how you would recruit a sales team member would largely depend on a few factors: what industry you are in (from within retail I mean); also, where you are sourcing the leads from (i.e. will this sales person need to generate their own or will they be given to them); how much account management will be required of the sales person; and what is the time commitment required each week from the person (to name a few.)
So, before you know who to recruit/hire there are some details that you need to work through in order to get the best package and plan together - generally speaking, it would be possible that you can recruit a commission-driven associate, but outlining their responsibilities and setting expectations with how you recruit or on-board them is the first step you need to take.
I'd be happy to connect and walk you through hiring/planning and even some technical options you can consider with scaling up your efforts. Send me a message if you're interested and we can
Hello!
Thank you for your question.
Back in the days I have experienced similar challenges.
Here are some approaches that have helped me:
1. Create valuable content around your target group especially giving advise on how to solve the problem your service is dedicated towards. Create a Blog, a facebook group and other content based accounts using channels that most probably will be used by your targets. Creating content consumes time and is a long term game but is extremely helpful in building trust and “free” organic traffic.
2. Find a partner instead of a sales person. The benefit of having somebody at your side who is a real partner instead of a disconnected commission based seller is that a partner will grind as much as you do for the project to grow. For example you can offer a young ambitious student the option of “virtual shares” + commission + “co-founder-badge”.
3. Rethink your mailing strategy and rebuild your cold mail content. Most important is having a strong set of emails that serve the most important aspects of human behavior. Also you don’t just want to send one email. Instead send a series of logically connected emails which you will regularly update / change for a/b-testing. There is tons of free content about effective cold mails on the internet.
Apart from those activities it important for you to guide yourself through this early stage with courage and believe in your growing skills.
If you ever have any question or want to elevate to the next level, Im looking forward to talk to you in more detail.
Keep up the hustle!
Yours,
Max
